They are a few important terms you need to know and remember when using YouTube to make sure your content will "fit" the site better.

Always consider the below notions. They are important for YouTube and therefore for your content. If your content helps YouTube, YouTube will help you. So always pay attention to:

Session time: the amount of time spent by a person on YouTube after watching your video. The higher the better.

Watch time: total time spent watching a YouTube video since it went live. The higher the better.

Pattern interrupts: elements in a video that are different from the rest of the video (they literally “interrupt” the “content”). These can be graphics, other video extracts, camera angle changes etc.

CTR: Clickthrough rate (CTR) can be used to gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing. CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR. For example, if you had 5 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 5%. On average, in AdWords, technology related content gets a CTR of 2.38% for search and 0.84% for display (average CTR in AdWords for all industries is 1.91% for search and 0.35% for display). A good AdWords click-through rate is 4-5%+ on the search network or 0.5-1%+ on the display network.

Audience retention: percentage length of your video that viewers watched. If a video lasts 2 minutes and someone watches for 30 seconds, audience retention is 25%. The higher the better and ideally, this value would be 25% at least.

Your videos must be optimized for YouTube including in regards to the watch time (total time spent watching a YouTube video since it went live) as their algorithm pushes to increase watch time. YouTube will rank higher in a video with a higher watch time (this is not the only setting).

Your videos will be more adapted to YouTube by following the below rules:

Videos must be long (longer videos tend to outrank short videos despite what “experts” tend to say). Short videos work well on Facebook and LinkedIn, not on YouTube. A longer video will accumulate a lot of total watch time automatically. On average, videos on the first results page are around 15 minute-long. Consider making your videos 8-15min long.

Cut off the fluff from your intros. According to YouTube’s official blog, the first 15 seconds of a video is key. You, therefore, have to grab viewer’s attention within 15 seconds. The intro must quickly preview exactly what the video will cover (you can start by saying “Hi guys, today I will tell you how to cook a delicious chocolate cake” before moving on).

Use “pattern interrupts”. They are elements in a video that are different from the rest of the video (they literally “interrupt” the “pattern”). These can be graphics, other video extracts, camera angle changes etc.

Script every line or at least follow a detailed outline. You must look confident while not reading a piece of paper. Feel free to read a piece a paper, say what you just read in front of the camera and then cut the reading part when editing the video. This will also give you the opportunity to insert a pattern interrupt.

Analyse what already worked to see what is already proven to work (you can use Buffer to help you for instance). To do so, watch the top 3 videos when searching for a particular keyword and note what they have in common (using many examples, videos are all long, all videos mention “live video”, “Instagram”, “influencer marketing”, 2 videos out of 3 mentions they are specifically for this year, etc.). Then indeed include these elements in your video.

Pop a seed keyword into YouTube Search and check out keywords that YouTube suggests.

Perform a “YouTube competition analysis” (we are looking for keywords that get many searches but aren’t super competitive).

You can use a Firefox/Chrome extension TubeBuddy which will show stats for each keyword.

Ideally, you would like to select keywords that appear in the YouTube suggestions as well as the videos from your competitors but also keywords that haven’t been used while still being relevant to your content. It is a good balance to find.

Having great content is important, but it’s not all. You must also consider writing a good title, description and add relevant tags and not too many.

It is not very difficult, but you should still follow some rules:

Write titles designed to maximize CTR (Click-Through Rate). The more people click on a video, the more it will be promoted on YouTube. Use power words such as “proven”, “powerful”, “hack”, “effective”, “guide”, “technique” … Also, use brackets and parentheses. It is a bit complicated to explain but yes, it works. You also want to include your main keyword in your title, ideally at the beginning. The structure of your title could be “keyword + value proposition” (ie. “Digital Marketing: 10 proven tips to increase your website traffic”). Try to stick to 55-60 characters for your title. Also, include the current year in your title (ideally between brackets or parentheses).

Write keyword-rich and SEO-friendly video descriptions. YouTube officially recommend long descriptions (up to one to two paragraphs). Treat it as a mini blog post, giving users detailed information about what to expect. Consider writing between 100 and 200 words. Explain what the video is about but don’t give all the details. People still need to see your video after reading the description. If you would like to insert external links (leading to a landing page, social media, etc), do NOT insert them at the beginning. Remember the first few words of your description also appear in Google results so don’t waste them: the first few words should be about the main topic of your video. Add external links at the bottom of your description otherwise, you might look like a bit “clickbait”. Moreover, you want viewers to stay on YouTube and leave to an external website (remember your video must lead people to stay on YouTube, ideally on your channel/watching your videos. Note that YouTube is now VERY hard on clickbait titles. If people click on your video but don’t watch it, they will bury it.

Bad example: Short descriptions are not SEO-optimized.

Good example: treat your video description as a blog post and give info but keep the details for your video!

3. Optimize video tags by firstly, using 3-5 tags that include their target keyword and close variations. Then use TubeBuddy, enter target keyword into the “Tag Explorer” feature, then use relevant tags given by TubeBuddy. Eventually, spy on the tags used by other videos. This “competitor analysis” can help search engine rankings but also help your video show up next to competitors as a suggested video. Remember tags are meant to make YouTube understand what your video is about. Too many tags would, therefore “confuse” the search engine (both Google and YouTube). Don’t use too many tags (about 5) but make them very specific. The first tag should be your keyword and then add 2 or 3 variations (use YouTube search suggestions) and then add an extra broad tag to add context. 4. Say your keyword in your video. Nowadays, Google (and therefore YouTube) can “listen” to videos. As a result, changing SEO and keywords of an “old” video may result in this video to be demoted by YouTube as the audio does not correspond to the new SEO and keywords.

Cards on YouTube are an effective way to keep people watching your videos by suggesting to the viewer the other videos they could be interested in.

You could also promote an external website (just like with ed screens) but remember you want people to stay on YouTube and keep watching your videos.

Good example: A card is discreet and adds an easy way for the viewer to get to the relevant content.

Cards are like dynamic notifications in the top right corner of your video and you can choose the exact moment it should pop up. Cards can include images, outside links (try to avoid those) and even content that is downloaded when viewers click (an eBook for instance). You can add up to five cards per video and each card can:

The process is then intuitive, simply add your text, your link and when should the card pop up and you’re set! Indeed make sure the card is relevant to the moment it appears. For example, if in the video someone is referring to an external source or a previous videos, it could be wise to suggest this source or video when the person mentions it.

On top of YouTube Cards, you can also add an end screen for the last seconds of your video which is a perfect time to add a CTA (Call to Action)!

End screens help to avoid viewers to go away by suggesting to them the next content they can watch. The idea remains similar to cards *LINKBACKANDFORTH*: you display a CTA to your viewers so they can watch more of your content. End screens tend to work better (viewers can decide to ignore cards to keep watching the video which is okay as it increases the chance they will finish your video- increasing session time), as viewers are now done with your video and need to look for another video to watch. Hold their hand by promoting up to four elements which can be:

Keep in mind that end screens must include at least one video or playlist element (i.e. you can’t just display a subscribe button on its own).Your end screen shouldn’t overlap actual video content so you should leave up to 20 seconds for this to fit into at the end of your video (note that 20 seconds is the maximum duration of an end screen). This should just show background content such as an image, plain screen, or some unobtrusive background video content.

Good example: An example of an end screen featuring a Subscribe button (the SSW logo) and a playlist (which the video is from).

In the course of your employment, you may need or want to produce a number of videos that might be useful both for the company and for your own profile.

For unlisted videos, e.g. done videos, put them on your own YouTube channel, as you can then look back to them a decade later fondly and see how much you have improved.​​

​For videos taken in your own time on your own equipment, you can feel free to put that on your own channel too.

For any videos that would help your company's YouTube presence and that are taken either in company time or with company equipment, it's best to upload them directly onto the company YouTube channel, and add them to a playlist on your own channel, so they still show up there and help promote your own profile, as well as the company's.

Figure: Click Add to | pick a playlist, and this video will show up on your personal channel

All your videos should be inserted into playlists and these playlists should be shown and promoted on your channel. Let's see why.

Creating and promoting optimized playlists is a plus, increasing session time (amount of time spent by a person on YouTube after watching your video). YouTube wants people to spend more time on their website (to increase their revenue with ads) so if a channel makes people spend more time on YouTube, this channel gets a boost. YouTube will automatically launch another video from a playlist once the first video is over, increasing session time. This snowball effect will give your channel and videos a great boost!

Bad example: people living YouTube after (or even while) watching one of your videos will rank you (and your content) down.

OK example: people watching another video after yours will give you a little boost.

Good example: people watching a video from your playlist are more likely to keep watching more of your videos, giving you a big boost!

One of the few disadvantages of videos over written content is that Google can't tell much about your video apart from the title and tags you may provide when you upload it. By having your video transcribed and adding the transcription text to wherever the video is shown, you're giving Google specific information about the content of your video.

It also helps people to copy and paste important parts of what's said on the video.​

There are many websites that provide transcription services. We recommended:

When you upload a video, what is the most important step for the videos future success or failure?

The most important step is setting the right title and description. As this is what search engines index to help others find your video content.

Figure: How to improve the keywords of this video?

The keywords for the video above are:

Windows 10

IoT

Microsoft

.NET

Micro Framework

However, it is missing important keywords such as:

open source

C#

GitHub

Universal Windows Platform

Raspberry Pi

I2C

How to capture all of these missing keywords? You can't just overload your content with keywords, as your content will quickly become flagged as spam.

The answer is to have your video content transcribed. As it provides drastically benefits for the discoverability of your video content, while the organic nature of the written material ensures it is not flagged as spam.

Engaging and interacting with your audience is great a way to get more "activities"​ around your videos and channel as well as building a faithful audience.​​

Make sure you:

Invite your viewers to comment on your video but give them something specific to comment on. Avoid “leave a comment below if you enjoyed the video” and ask them an open-ended question ("what is your favorite cake? Do you have any other tips to share?").

Reply to your viewers’ comments. It is a great idea so they know they can touch base with you and they are likely to come back to discuss further, generating more traffic. More people will also be tempted to comment if they see an interaction between you and your viewers.

There are also some other little “tricks” to keep your audience happy:

In your video analytics, monitor your retention rate to see what worked well so you can do it again (basically, check what your audience likes).

Be (pro)active and share your video on other media (forums, social media…)

Creating a 60 second-long video preview (with the same title) with a link to the full YouTube video written in a comment is a good way to promote it on Facebook.

Use emotional keywords in your title and description. Use the Advanced Marketing Institute website, check your keywords and keep those with a result of at least 25% (the higher the result the better).

Reach the largest audience by posting at the best time: between 12 pm and 4 pm on weekdays (ideally on Thursdays) and between 9 am and 11 am on weekend (ideally on Saturdays).

Help and improve these rules

Nothing great is easy. The SSW rules are a great resource for developers all around the world.
However it’s hard to keep rules current and correct. If you spot a rule that is out of date, please email or if you are cool tweet me.